62-Year Old Woman Sues Cops Over Reality TV Weed Raid

0

YouTube
Failed reality TV show “Texas Takedown” lands cops in court


Apparently full to the brim with shows about everything from hoarders to housewives, reality TV producers in the state of Texas have found a new format to film – the home invasion.
The proposed show is called “Texas Takedown” and it follows a crew-cut band of Lone Star state lawmen as they kick down the doors of unsuspecting Texans from Austin to the Alamo, hoping that whatever waits on the other side is at least good for ratings.
On September 22nd of 2011, just after 10 o’clock pm, fame came crashing through the front door of the home belonging to then 59-year old Perla Carr.


As she emerged from her bedroom to see what all the fuss was about, Carr says she was met by heavily armed law enforcement officers who has the laser sights of their weapons of war trained directly on her chest.
Also pointed at her that night was a makeshift camera crew embedded with the police officers, recording live footage to be cut and pasted into their lame idea for a reality TV show.
The show never quite saw the Survivor-level of success dreamt up by its creators, but all footage of the raid on the Carr household was posted onto an associated YouTube page for the world to see, and now Perla Carr is suing everyone involved claiming that her personal rights were violated by the cops and the cameras.
The officers in question were operating under the order of Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon, who can be heard on the YouTube video instructing the officers via cell phone to “force entry”.
The home was searched while Carr sat handcuffed to a lawn chair. A felony amount of cannabis was found on site, and Carr’s 33-year old son, Zachary May, Jr., was immediately arrested due to an outstanding misdemeanor on his record.
The officers on scene allegedly found 60 cannabis plants growing in a makeshift hydroponic system, yielding a lackluster total weight of 6.5 pounds. Both Perla Carr and Zachary May Jr. were charged with felony counts of marijuana possession, though Perla’s charges were eventually dropped due to a lack of evidence.
She is now suing everyone from DA Ligot to the officers on scene. Like the man in charge of the raid that night, the Precinct 4 Constable that goes by the tone-deaf name of “Rowdy” Hayden.
According to Carr, the warrant for the raid did not show up until two hours after the cops kicked down her door. She says they acted under orders to produce a bullshit affidavit claiming that they both saw and smelled the cannabis in question from outside of the residence, giving them the probable cause to enter the private residence prematurely.
Carr’s son has pled guilty in his case, but she is not done fighting.
She says that her 4th Amendment rights were violated when the cops decided to drag the media in her house with them. Montgomery County officials moved to have the case dismissed, but US District Judge Gray Miller declined their motion.
The judge cited the US Supreme Court ruling Wilson v. Lane which clearly states, “a violation of the Fourth Amendment for police to bring members of the media or other third parties into a home during the execution of a warrant when the presence of the third parties in the home was not in aid of the execution of the warrant.”
Backpeddling, the Montgomery County DA filed for full immunity in the case on his own behalf, and partial immunity for the officers involved. The judge recognized half of the DA Ligot’s appeal, granting him the full immunity requested, but denying it for the officers involved.
In his 28-page decision, the judge showed that he at least partially agrees with Perla Carr that her rights were violated that night in 2011. He said that in her testimony of the events that transpired on the night in question, Carr had satisfactorily met the “burden to establish a violation of her well-settled constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches”.
That testimony included sensationalized video clips of the “Texas Takedown” show that never got legs, but ended up instead on YouTube. In response, Judge Miller chastised good ol’ boy “Rowdy” Hayden, saying, “Hayden’s conduct does not appear to be mere negligence or gross negligence, but intentional, as Hayden is featured throughout the scenes and interviews depicted in the footage”.
Apparently somebody forgot to tell Rowdy and the boys that “reality TV” is anything but real, and that the dusty roads of south Texas are a long way from Hollywood.

Share.